


Breeze [Book I]

by deltachye



Series: Tales of the Wind [1]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-11
Updated: 2014-04-11
Packaged: 2018-08-16 20:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 2,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8115958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deltachye/pseuds/deltachye
Summary: [reader x haymitch abernathy, ages 5-13] [book I/IV of "Tales of the Wind"]Childhood is softer and warmer than a spring afternoon's breeze. A sparkling love of affection and not yet romance is just as warm and tender — and it's something to hold onto desperately as the days get longer, and longer, and longer...





	1. I - Fights

* * *

 

When Haymitch had first met you, you had kicked the crap out of him.

 

It was easy. He was popular, had a popular group of friends, and stuck with them. Even if it meant bullying the scrawny girl that always kept to herself.

 

“Abernathy, fight her! Show her her place!”

 

He didn’t want to, but knew he had to if he wanted to stay cool. However, before he could lay a hand on you, you immediately kneed him in the stomach and ran.

 

His first image of you was when you stuck your tongue in his face and disappeared.


	2. II - Bubblegum

Haymitch nursed his bruised abdomen, holding ice to it and wincing whenever he shifted. His ‘friends’ had ditched him after you had left, leaving him alone to tend for himself.

 

“Hey…”

 

He jumped. It was you. You were holding out a package with a face that was redder than a poppy. “Um, I’m sorry…”

 

“What is it?” he asked suspiciously, grabbing it from you before you finished. He tore the tissue off to reveal a stick of Capitol pink bubble-gum. “Where’d you get this?” he asked, full of new excitement. 

 

You had already run away, covering your face in shame.


	3. III - Tying Shoelaces

After apologizing, you never spoke to him again. It was nearing the end of the school year, and he found himself alone for most of it. He was an outcast of the outcasts. 

 

He stumbled upon you when he was walking home. You were hunched over, face hidden. He approached you carefully.

 

“Do you need help?” he asked. He realized you were stuffing the laces of your shoes away to hide them.

 

You jumped. He found himself fearing what you would do to him —

 

“…Okay,” you muttered, sticking your foot out in front of him. “Sorry.”

 

“No problem.”


	4. IV - Girl Cooties

“I don’t want to!” Haymitch complained, crossing his arms and shaking his head snootily. 

 

“Why not?” you pouted, though it looked more sinister than puppy-like on you.

 

“I-I’ll get girl cooties!”

 

You sighed, letting your head and hand hang with exasperation. “Do you wanna come up the tree with me or not?”

 

“Not with cooties — wait, stop!”

 

You snatched his hand mockingly spit down on him, pulling him up into the oak. 

 

“Ewie, ewie,” you rolled your eyes, scrambling even farther up.


	5. V - Imaginary Friends

“You’ve never had an imaginary friend?” you asked Haymitch with a tone of awe in your voice. He shook his head, blowing a dark curl out of his vision. 

 

“But… they’re so much fun! You can do anything with them!”

 

“I don’t need them. I have you.”

 

He had meant for that statement to be one of heart and warmth, but you took it as an insult. “You hurt Bobby and Jane’s feelings! It’s okay guys, he’s just a meanie grumpy pants.”

 

He rubbed his temples.


	6. VI - Blue

You always had a blue dress on. Whether it was rain or shine, you refused to take off that little faded out, flat dress with the little bow on the back.

 

When you switched it out for a pair of pants and a loose tunic, he immediately asked you if everything was ok.

 

“Boys were looking up my skirt too much,” you sighed glumly, picking at the fabric of your black trousers. “My brother threw it out…”

 

“ _I_ never looked up your skirt!” he declared proudly. You began to blush to his confusion.

 

“That sounds like a lie, Haymitch!”


	7. VII - The Slide

Haymitch hated the slide. It was too big, too dirty, too hot, too squeaky, too dangerous, too full.

 

“Come on Mitchy, Let’s go together!” you were already climbing up the ladder.

 

“I told you not to call me that,” he protested, but he could never stop following you. Before he knew it, you were sitting in his lap with your bony hands ready to push off.

 

“Ready? On three!”

 

He wasn’t ready. Not at all. He gulped. He hated heights, too. At least he could brace himself ‘till 3 —

 

“One!”

 

You never let him forget his squeals.


	8. VIII - Mommy's Hugs

“Bye mom,” his voice was muffled as he hugged his mother. You waited patiently for him outside before his mother let go, allowing him to leave for school. 

 

He always asked you why only your older brother showed to pick you up, but you told him you didn’t like to talk about it. Why were you so grumpy all the time? It dawned on him you were probably missing…

 

A hug.

 

He wrapped his arms around you like he would with his mom, only to have you scream and punch him in the face.

 

The things he did.


	9. IX - Toothy Grins

“We can’t, it’s illegal to go there!”

 

“Shh. Mitch, we need the food. All we’re gonna do is get some apples, ‘kay?”

 

At your relentless pouting and fake tears, he finally gave in and allowed you to drag him to a slit in the dead fence and across the Meadow to a row of trees bursting with sweet fruit. He couldn’t stop shaking — but you were grinning to yourself like a madman. You shimmied up the tree, allowing yourself a solitary whoop of mirth.

 

He supposed he could live as long as you kept smiling.


	10. X - Skinned Knees

You came running to him one day, your pearly teeth digging into your plump (albeit cracked and usually bloody) lips. He was only slightly older than you, by a year and a bit, yet you always were so strong and mature that he always felt inferior. Today however, you were giving that up.

 

“I-I hurt myself,” you mumbled, your voice having the fragile crack before you were sobbing. He looked at your knees which were skinned and slowly dripping blood, shaking ever so slightly with the struggle of weight.

 

He took your hand gingerly, and you let him.


	11. XI - Tears

Crying. 

You were actually crying.

He had every childish urge to make fun of you, but managed to restrain himself. Seeing you weak and vulnerable sparked a curious feeling inside of him — something he could only describe in his words as “protective”.

You refused to tell him how you’d gotten the injury, so he just assumed you tripped and fell. He hushed your staggered sobs as he dabbed a small bit of his Father’s whiskey over your wounds, bandaging them with spare cloth.

He hugged you afterwards, allowing your tears and watery snot to seep through his tunic. 

“It’s okay.”


	12. XII - Sneaking Around

Haymitch woke up to a tapping at his window. It was too slow to be a curious animal, so he crawled across his small cot over to the dirty glass and peered outside. He saw you perched perilously along the old oak’s branch, reaching out with a stick to get his attention. He opened the old rusty latch and pulled the old thing up, careful not to wake his dozing family.

“You’re such a perverted sneak,” he told you almost accusingly, getting a small smile in return. 

“Can I come in or not?”

“‘Course.”

“Thanks, Mitch.”


	13. XIII - Bad Liars

Haymitch knew something was wrong with you a long time ago. He just hadn’t asked. 

Now he wished he had. 

You whimpered on the bathroom floor. Your skin was grotesquely mangled with precise cuts that grew more and more ragged, crawling up your arms until they hit old scars opened anew again. 

“Why’d you do it?” he yelled over and over. 

You kept lying to him. You refused to speak the truth, all the way until you fell asleep. You were such a bad liar. A childish fool.

Then, he wondered if _he_ was the fool.

The fool responsible.


	14. XIV - Treat

“Mitch! Look what I got!”

“Have, not got,” Haymitch corrected automatically. He was just approaching the last days of his school year before he advanced onto a higher level of the Academy, reserved only for people who ‘deserved’ it. It wasn’t anything like the old District 12 Elementary, however. It was a school for people who might get reaped.

He decided not to think about it. You jogged up to his spot on the stairs, holding something wrapped in a red cloth. It was cake. Real cake.

“Have it,” you thrust it into his hands triumphantly, “a treat for luck.”


	15. XV - Innocent

Haymitch jumped awake with the memory of cake, only to remember what had happened before that. Blood on his fingers, seeping across pale blue tiles. 

He was about to scream your name when he realized you were peering above him, looking awfully worried. You broke out into a grin when you saw him wake frantically.

“You passed out at school,” you explained, but he cut you off by grasping your wrists. “What the hell, Haymitch?!”

They were perfectly smooth. He let a breath go he had been holding since seeing you on the floor.

Innocent. You were still innocent.


	16. XVI - School Holidays

Haymitch had almost forgotten it was a school holiday, and only remembered when he almost tripped over his kid brother still sleeping in his cot beside him when he was trying to get ready. 

Filled with ecstasy, he raced outdoors to meet with you. You were already lurking around his yard, obviously having waited for him a while.

“Where were you?” you demanded as soon as he step foot outdoors. “I was waiting _forever_.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he brushed you off easily.

You walked away with him, both unsure of where to go but enjoying each other’s company all the same.


	17. XVII - Cloud Gazing

Cloud gazing with you was always much more exciting than it should be, because he liked to listen to your snarky comments that you let slip about everything. When you settled into the tall grass in the Meadow which you and he frequented, you began talking immediately.

“That fat one looks like Jones,” you said while tracing your finger in the air. You were referring to the Peacekeeper’s horrifyingly obese form, which was almost like a joke to the starving citizens of 12.

He laughed and listened, nearly falling asleep to the sound of your voice alone.


	18. XVIII - Little Secrets

“Hey,” he nudged your shoulder to get your attention. You looked up from the book you had been reading, making a noise of inquiry. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.” You returned to your book, probably assuming it wasn’t important.

“Are you… keeping anything from me?”

He kept having the same nightmare of you bleeding over his floor. Sometimes you’d cry his name, others you would be deathly silent. 

His heart dropped through the floor as you flinched. It was your tell. 

“No, of course not.”

You were still keeping secrets.


	19. XIX - Hideouts

When you told him a few days after that you had to show him something, he immediately agreed. He had been worried sick about you, so afraid of the gashes that might appear on your wrists one day or the rope that would mysteriously be tucked in the corner of your room. 

You pulled him along through the Meadow, which was usual. However, when you began to lead him away from the usual path, he was curious. 

“It’s just a hideout! Catch up,” you called to him, trekking through the grass and beckoning for him to follow. 

Relief. He sighed.


	20. XX - Birthday Parties

What you called your ‘hideout’ was impressive. You led him to an abandoned concrete hut in the middle of nowhere beside an uncharted lake, making him wonder how you even found it. It was overgrown with ivy and half of it was collapsed, but it had its own beauty to it. When he asked, you merely shushed him.

“Go in,” you urged, pushing him once. He did, and immediately saw the decorated cake with a single candle propped up on a slanted rock that served as a table.

“What?" he asked in wonder, and you grinned.

“Happy birthday, Mitch.”


	21. XXI - Losing Teeth

You were eating lunch with him before your eyes widened in surprise, and you spat something out into the long, supple grass. You were bleeding profusely, and there was a dark hole where your front tooth used to be. 

“I losht my thooth!” you stated the obvious, swooping down to claim your prize. You stared it over like a gem, grinning again. You turned to him and held it up, making him leer backwards in disgust. “D’you know what thith means, Mith?”

“What?” he decided to humour you.

You smiled again. “I’m gettin’ closer to marryin’ you.”


	22. XXII - Bundling Up

The weather was getting quickly getting cold, making Haymitch dread going outside. There was constant threat of precipitation, so he donned a tight jacket with a homemade scarf of grey wool. He met up with you on the path to school, and noticed you were still wearing ordinary clothes that surely were too cold to be in. 

He tried to offer you a garment of his clothing, but you refused. He kept catching you staring enviously at his scarf despite your efforts to look away. He finally gave it to you, wrapping it around your face crudely.

“Stay warm, idiot.”


	23. XXIII - Pranking

It seemed like your favourite thing to do was to play pranks on him. He decided this as you tripped him for the umpteenth time, nearly shoving him into the icy pond steps away. He glared at you as you guffawed, popping blackberries into your mouth.

“Ha!” you laughed at him, sprinting away in the fear he would get revenge. He merely sighed and dusted off his pants. He’d let you be happy a little longer. It was time to go to Mining Training soon, and he wanted more smiling memories of you to comfort him when he was weak.


	24. XXIV - Puddles

You hooted as you splashed around in the muddy puddles littering the dirt road, uncaring that you were wearing leather dress shoes that were definitely not waterproof. He shielded himself from your wild spray as you leapt from one to another.

“Aren’t you too old for that?” he chided you. You hit your twelfth birthday yesterday, leaving him at thirteen and having to take care of you as you refused to leave your childish phase. Kids your age were hunting and you were splashing in puddles.

“I’ll never be,” you exclaimed in an indignant tone, sopping wet yet still proud.


	25. XXV - Thunderstorms

You peered from under Haymitch’s jacket, staring upwards into the deep grey clouds that leaked a heavy onset of rain on the world. 

“You’re letting the water in!” he scolded you, and you dropped the sleeve. You and he were trying to wait out the storm, which was getting worse. 

A crackle of lightning flashed across the sky, before a roll of thunder followed immediately after. Not good. The storm was close. He didn’t even notice your jump and slight whimper as you crept closer to him.

“We should go,” he muttered, turning a blind ear on your hurried ‘no’.


	26. XXVI - Comfort

Haymitch finally heard your plead when you refused to stand up, slipping underneath the makeshift umbrella and exposing yourself to the rain. You squinted, shivering like a naked stray in the alleyways. 

He realized you were afraid. But now, he had to do something he was more afraid of.

_Comforting people._

“Hey, um. It’s okay, just come on,” he nervously said, crouching back down so he would block the onslaught of rain the wind was blowing. You were silent. Giving up, he just grabbed your hand and dragged you, which was not taken well judging by your screams.

Oh well.


	27. XXVII - Rainbows

He threw you a towel, one slung around his own neck as he wrung off his sopping wet jacket. His clothes stuck to him uncomfortably, making him hate Mother Nature even more than he already did. You took no notice of the cloth, letting it fall by your side. You were busy staring at something out the window. 

He joined you, trying to catch a glimpse over your head. Then he saw the rainbow.

“Oh come on. I thought you weren’t girly,” he teased. You swatted at him, embarrassed. 

He didn’t _really_ mind. After all, it was beautiful, like you.


	28. XXVIII - Puddles

Despite your fear of thunder, you still insisted on running outside in the rain and dancing around in it like a demon had taken control of you. He refused you every time you asked to him to join you in your crazy parade down the block, and settled with watching you from his bedroom window. He smiled whenever you waved at him, sticking your tongue out with slits for eyes to block out the constant moisture.

You were really having fun, and he was alright with watching you be happy.


	29. XXIX - Content

“Aren’t you scared?”

Your voice brought him back to reality. You’d been quiet for most of the walk to school, so it was a surprise to hear you talk.

“’Bout what?” he asked, tucking a long dark lock behind his ear. You failed to nag him about cutting it, which made him realize how serious you were. 

“You know. Training Academy.” Your tone was brief, but concern leaked into your syllables.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because… I’ll still get to see you,” he said, flashing a grin. You rolled your eyes, but it was true.

He was always content around you.


	30. XXX - Shooting Stars

“Mitch, wake up. Look!”

He stirred awake as you jostled him. You’d appeared in his room again, and although he wondered he never asked why. Your voice was quiet, but excitement was clear in your tone.

He grunted, rising. You gestured at the window, and he saw streaks of light. He rubbed his eyes before he saw them clearly — shooting stars. 

“What do you wish for?” he asked you groggily.

“Can’t tell you,” you muttered playfully, but you leaned into his shoulder.

He was okay. He’d lose his childhood tomorrow — head into the storm of adulthood. 

But he’d be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Elsewhere: https://goo.gl/BT4zgE


End file.
